Hello Q.U.A.C.K.ers,
Brian Johnson here, getting my feet wet in this Substack service and sharing my first post. If you’re not subscribed already to receive future posts, please do:
My parents started me in piano lessons in elementary school. Our next door neighbor was a piano teacher (so it was an easy commute!), and I can remember the magic of playing my first tune, which was probably something simple like Three Blind Mice. I also had my mind blown when I told her about some of my favorite TV shows, and she could just start playing their theme songs by ear, nearly perfectly.
I took piano lessons all the way through my senior year in high school, and while I am very grateful for the musical foundation those years gave me, I feel like I missed out a bit on the “fun” of playing piano. The focus at that time was so much on music theory and trying to master some Bach or Beethoven piece for an upcoming piano recital. Never was it “Hey Brian, let’s find you a piece that you enjoy playing, because then maybe you’ll actually practice the piano more!”
As soon as I got to college and didn’t have to play piano anymore, I wanted to play! However, because I had fought against things like boring finger exercises and chord structure, I didn’t have the chops I needed to play popular tunes by ear like my old piano teacher could.
So now, some 20+ years later, I’m taking piano lessons again. My social media feed kept bugging me to try Pianote, so last week I gave them my credit card (you get a free trial for 1-2 weeks and then charged afterwards if you don’t cancel) and tried a few lessons. And so far I’m really impressed! The lesson track I’m on is taught primarily by Lisa Witt, who is incredibly peppy and enthusiastic about teaching - and you can tell just by this thumbnail:
The Pianote site gives you all sorts of options for finding the right learning track depending on what you want to do and learn. Want to beef up your classical chops? There’s a track for that. Interested in rocking the blues and sharpening your improv skills? There’s a track for that. In fact, a few days into my trial I got an email from Pianote asking me to simply reply to the message and write out what kinds of things I wanted to accomplish on the piano, and a real live mentor wrote back with suggestions on a path for me to follow.
As an added bonus, your subscription to Pianote gives you access to some of their other music training portals such as Guitareo, so I’m going to check that out soon as well.
All this to say I’m trying to grow as a musician and expand my musical horizons - both for the fun of it and also for future live Q.U.A.C.K. concerts!
Have a great week!
Brian